On 26 August 2013, the Finnish Supreme Court ruled it was legal to
censor a website listing domain names of sites that are currently
blocked even if the site itself doesn’t host or link to illegal content.

The ruling comes in the case of Matti Nikki’s website lapsiporno.info
which was added by the Finnish police on the list of websites to be
filtered because it exposed the blocked links. Matti challenged the
decision in court and in 2011 a Helsinki court ruled that his site
should not be blocked.

The Front for Freedom of Expression, an informal coalition of nine civic
associations, demands from Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia to
retract the proposed media bills – the Law on Media and the Law on Audio
and Audiovisual Media Services, which threaten to further undermine
freedom of speech in Macedonia, especially due to the unjustified
decision to cover both print and internet-media with new regulations.

The majority of issues allegedly resolved with the proposed bills are
already covered in the Broadca

The EDRi member from Turkey Alternative Informatics Association together
with other 11 NGOs from Turkey issued the following public announcement
with the title "Reclaiming our rights on social media following the Gezi
Park protests":

UN and some international organizations have declared Internet as the
main tool of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Internet
and social media are indispensable for the individual to progress, for
the individual to take part in society and for a sustainable democracy.
Around the whole world masses demand access to information, transparency
and participative democracy.

Freedom of expression, freedom to protest and privacy are fundamental
human rights. Freedom of expression also consists of dissent.

The wave of resistance that started at Gezi Park on the 29 May 2013 in
Istanbul and has since spread all over Turkey once again revealed a
deep connection between real time communication on social media and
social movements. Throughout the protests, social media platforms have
become the primary news source in this environment where the
mainstream media have proven themselves to be the site of
disinformation or inertia.

The new Macedonian law on Law on Media and Audiovisual Media Services
creates serious risks for freedom of expression in Macedonia.

The new law expands the scope of state control from broadcast media
(which is justified because they use a limited public resource, namely
wireless spectrum) to all kinds of media, including online and print.
This is neither justified and unnecessary and far exceeds the
requirements of the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive 2010/13/EU.

Furthermore, excessively broad definitions (for instance, the concept of
journalists) and vague formulations create the risk and possibility of
arbitrary interpretation by state regulators, which would increase the
risk of the undermining of freedom of expression.

Last week, European Digital Rights attended the second annual Stockholm Internet Forum which focused on two main themes: Internet Freedom and Security and Internet Freedom and Development. A novelty this year were the Unconference sessions.

Over the past few years it has become more and more frequent that
private companies get to decide what is "appropriate" or "inappropriate"
online and what sort of Internet content we are allowed to access.

Our rights to privacy and freedom of expression are increasingly put
into the hands of arbitrary decisions of private intermediaries.